The next morning, Quinn brought back more news.
"They headed out to the same forest again last night at one in the morning. Just like before, they didn't return until around three or four."
"They went again?"
As Luke listened, he fell into thought.
If that was the case, then it probably was not just once or twice. There was a good chance they had been doing this ever since the day they arrived in the capital.
One thing was certain, they were definitely searching for something. Otherwise, there was no reason to keep running around outside the capital in the middle of the night.
After thinking it over, Luke said, "Keep watching them. Let me know if you find anything new."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Quinn answered, then headed toward the back courtyard.
Watching her leave, Luke leaned back in the rocking chair and casually said in his mind, "Check in."
[Congratulations, Host has obtained 1 Basic Skill Upgrade Card]
[Congratulations, Host has obtained 1 Training Card (3 Days)]
[Congratulations, Host has obtained Rare Exotic Fruit: Red Grapes]
This time there were three rewards, though none of them were especially great.
Luke had already saved up two Basic Skill Upgrade Cards by now. At the moment, there were no skills he particularly wanted to upgrade, so he left them in his inventory.
After breakfast, Luke sat lazily in the rocking chair with an easel set up in front of him. On it was a half-finished landscape oil painting.
Compared to the crisp efficiency he showed when he was serious, his brushstrokes now fell one at a time, scattered and leisurely, as he idly passed the time.
Beside him, Lux was holding a newspaper and reading through it. Then she said, "Yesterday afternoon, House Laurent sent someone to challenge that Hughes."
Luke immediately grew a little interested. He tilted his head and leaned closer, almost pressing against Miss Crownguard as his gaze dropped to the newspaper in her hands.
Skipping over some unimportant filler, he quickly found what he wanted to read.
"At two in the afternoon on October 2nd, Blanche Laurent went to the Skaggorn embassy and challenged Hughes Francis, suffering a crushing defeat.
"One hour later, Baruk Laurent issued another challenge and was also thoroughly defeated.
"At five in the afternoon, Willis Laurent challenged him and was defeated in three moves.
"Hughes declared that as long as the challenger belonged to House Laurent, he would accept no matter how many came, and that he hoped tomorrow's challengers would no longer be a few useless pieces of trash."
That line perfectly captured what real arrogance sounded like.
But the results printed in the paper also proved that Hughes had the skill to back it up.
"Three straight losses..."
After reading it, even Lux found it hard to believe.
In one afternoon, House Laurent had sent out three people to challenge Hughes, and all three had lost.
And Hughes had not refused a single Laurent challenge. He accepted every one and crushed every opponent.
With the newspaper spreading the story today, the whole capital would probably know about it by now.
Hughes had made a name for himself in one stroke, while House Laurent had completely become the stepping stone under his feet.
And as the story spread, the duel challenge Hughes had issued to House Laurent's eldest son, Ammdar, on National Day also spread across the entire royal capital.
At this point, the whole city was talking about it.
Just then, Lux noticed Fiora walking over and immediately folded up the newspaper, putting on an expression that said she had seen absolutely nothing.
When Fiora saw that, she smiled. "I already know. Someone got chewed out badly this morning."
As she said it, she glanced at Luke too.
This situation would not have blown up nearly this badly on its own.
But once the newspaper got involved, now everyone knew.
The three elders had gone green when they read it this morning.
The publicity had definitely made House Laurent famous again. People in the capital were remembering the once-great swordsmanship family all over again.
The problem was that they were becoming famous as someone else's stepping stone.
Lux looked at Fiora curiously. "So what do you think?"
"Isn't it true?"
Fiora's tone was cool, and she sounded completely unconcerned.
Even though she was part of House Laurent too, she felt her family had brought this humiliation on themselves.
Trying to harass an opponent before a duel was not exactly an honorable move to begin with.
And after these three losses in a row, there was really no better word for it than humiliating.
The decision had been made by the three elders and the other relatives. Her father and mother had opposed it, but they could not stop it.
At that point, Luke asked, "So what are they planning to do today?"
"Obviously, they're going to try to win back face." Fiora gave a faint smile and sat down casually. "There's no way they can swallow this. If they want to recover the dignity they lost, they can only keep challenging him."
Lux asked, "And what if they lose again today?"
"Then they lose even more face." Fiora smiled faintly.
When she said it, it sounded like she was speaking entirely as an outsider.
And in truth, that was exactly what it felt like.
For all these years, from corners no one ever noticed, she had watched them slowly burn away House Laurent's name and honor piece by piece.
Now the family was hopelessly trapped in the glory of the past. It still wore a beautiful shell, but the inside was hollow.
In fact, many of the younger members of the main Laurent line were now weaker than their distant relatives.
To her, a family like that was bound to decline.
"Then let's go over this afternoon and watch."
Luke was pretty interested and decided to go see it in person later.
In the blink of an eye, it was one in the afternoon.
The carriage slowly came to a stop at the entrance to the Skaggorn embassy.
This was a residence specially built for foreign envoys, and the grounds were quite large.
By the time Luke's family carriage arrived, plenty of other carriages had already parked nearby.
Clearly, quite a few people had come to watch the excitement.
Besides some nobles, even more of the crowd consisted of ordinary citizens from the capital, all gathered outside the embassy grounds.
"Everyone, please come in."
An attendant from Skaggorn opened access and allowed everyone inside.
Luke and the others naturally did not need to go through the main gate. Guided along a much more convenient route by a staff member, they quickly arrived at the edge of a specially prepared dueling platform inside the embassy.
After choosing a good spot, a few nobles noticed them and came over to say hello.
Luke responded to each in turn.
Before long, the main event of the day finally stepped onto the stage.
On the dueling platform, Hughes held a uniquely shaped weapon, something between a sword and a saber, with a very distinctive design. It was about a meter long, and it gleamed coldly in his hand.
Standing opposite him was one of the stronger young members of House Laurent, holding a rapier and standing perfectly straight.
His name was Farmel. In terms of relation, he was Fiora's cousin.
Farmel had not expected so many people to show up today. At that moment, the platform was almost completely surrounded by spectators.
With so many eyes on him, he could not help straightening his collar, then tightening his grip on his sword as he looked at Hughes across from him.
To him, this was a perfect chance to make a name for himself.
"It would have been one thing if you had only beaten a few of my younger kinsmen, but you even ran your mouth afterward. Today, I have to step forward and punish your arrogance."
Farmel spoke in a righteous tone while casually swinging his weapon twice through the air.
Hughes remained expressionless and said with contempt, "Enough talking. You look just as useless as those three pieces of trash from yesterday."
Farmel's expression immediately showed irritation. He let out a cold snort. "I'll let you taste House Laurent's swordsmanship."
Following the rules of the duel, the two men circled each other face-to-face, shifting their footwork and sword positions according to the ritual motions required before combat, like a pair of dance partners paying their respects before the music of a waltz began.
It was part of the ritual of dueling.
And it also served as a reminder to the audience that the battle they came to see was about to start.
Once the ritual ended, Farmel wasted no time. He raised his sword, lunged forward in a single burst, and thrust the rapier straight toward his opponent's heart.
House Laurent's swordsmanship was fast and ruthless, and to the crowd, the strike was indeed sharp and clean.
Up in the viewing area, Fiora's brow furrowed for a moment, then relaxed. Her calm eyes already seemed to know how this duel would end.
Even so, her gaze remained fixed on the platform.
This time, the person she was watching was Hughes.
A sneer curled at the corner of Hughes's mouth. He twisted sideways and dodged the thrust, then chopped his oddly shaped blade toward Farmel's neck in a vicious arc.
Farmel immediately withdrew his rapier to block, then tried to counterattack.
But his retaliatory thrust had barely left the sheath of motion before Hughes's blade came down faster than his.
In that instant, Farmel felt a crushing pressure.
Shock flashed across his eyes. He clearly had not expected his opponent's sword to be this fast.
There was no time to think. He pulled back once more to defend, but he failed to notice that after only two exchanges, he had already lost the upper hand.
"What happened? Weren't you going to let me taste Laurent swordsmanship?"
There was already an easy, mocking look on Hughes's face.
The casual confidence of it made Farmel feel as though he had already lost, and Hughes simply had not bothered ending it yet.
"Then get ready!"
The anger in Farmel's chest flared hotter. He shouted and threw out several thrusts with everything he had, briefly regaining the advantage.
From the stands, Luke watched for a moment and said, "Looks like he's trying to figure out House Laurent's sword style."
Fiora kept her eyes on the platform. Hearing that, she nodded. She had already noticed the same thing.
Lux asked blankly, "What do you mean?"
"He had already won by his second strike."
Luke watched Hughes and Farmel continue their fight on the platform. "He just doesn't want to win that quickly."
Lux nodded in realization, then looked back at Farmel, who kept thrusting again and again.
She could not help thinking that even though it was supposed to be the swordsmanship of the same family, this guy looked nowhere near Miss Fiora's level.
And the facts quickly proved that for Hughes, this duel really was his to end whenever he felt like it.
Once he realized he could learn nothing more about Laurent swordsmanship from Farmel, he ended the fight immediately.
Farmel was still in the middle of slashing enthusiastically when he suddenly realized Hughes's blade had stopped at his throat. A cold sweat instantly broke out across his back.
"You're the older brother of those three from yesterday?"
Hughes looked at Farmel in front of him and smiled with disdain. "As far as I can tell, the only advantage you have over them is that you're older."
The implication was obvious. In Hughes's eyes, he was just as useless.
"You..." Farmel felt anger and shame rise in his chest and clenched his fists.
In a sacred duel, very few people humiliated their opponents after winning the way Hughes did.
"Farmel, come down."
A man standing below the platform with a rapier tucked in his arms finally spoke.
Farmel withdrew his gaze from Hughes's face, glanced at the crowd murmuring all around him, sighed, and stepped down from the stage.
The man carrying the rapier stepped up and looked at Hughes. "I am Alaka Laurent, the older brother of the challenger you just defeated. Your next challenger is me. One hour from now, I will issue you a duel."
Hughes gave a dismissive laugh. "No need to go through all that trouble. I'll accept your duel right now."
The contempt in his tone made Alaka's face darken. "If that's what you want, then let's begin."
He drew his rapier and swung it through the air twice, leaving behind two flashes of sword light.
Alaka was the strongest young member of House Laurent after Ammdar.
In Fiora's memory, he did indeed have some talent.
Still, as she looked at Hughes standing across from him, a thoughtful light flashed in her eyes.
On the platform, the fight between Hughes and Alaka was about to begin as soon as the dueling ritual ended.
Alaka did not choose to attack first. He simply stood where he was, rapier in hand, calmly sizing up his opponent.
"Hmph."
Hughes let out a cold snort, raised his weapon, and rushed forward in a blur.
There was an indescribable force about him, something in his presence that pressed down on others like invisible weight.
And his sword was extremely fast.
Alaka stared closely at him. The instant Hughes moved, he reacted as well, driving his rapier forward instead of defending.
When two fast swords collided, a fiercer clash was inevitable.
As the duel began, Luke quickly sensed a current of sword intent. Then he glanced at Fiora beside him.
Miss Fiora was frowning. She had clearly felt it too.
That sword intent was coming from Hughes.
And if one watched carefully, it became obvious that Hughes's state had changed.
He looked much more exhilarated now, almost feverish.
Luke possessed multiple forms of sword intent himself now, so his understanding of it could be said to be extremely deep.
At that moment, he could already sense that the sword intent on Hughes was different from the usual sort.
Thinking back, he realized he had overlooked a detail in the previous duel.
Because Farmel had not been strong enough, it had not been very obvious then.
But now that he thought about it, Luke realized Hughes had been dragging out the earlier fight not just to study House Laurent's swordsmanship.
He had also been building up sword intent.
As that sword intent revealed itself around Hughes, Luke could feel the man's state and aura changing with it.
Both had become stronger.
And as the fight grew more intense, Hughes seemed to still be getting stronger.
In that way, it felt somewhat similar to Wuju sword intent. Wuju carried the idea of having no limit, so Wuju sword intent grew stronger and stronger during battle.
By comparison, Hughes's felt more like he was using combat itself to drive himself into a better state.
In that state, his strength surpassed what it normally was.
Wuju sword intent could grow infinitely without any clear ceiling.
But the sword intent on Hughes felt more like a breakthrough. Through battle, he built up enough sword intent to push himself into a new layer of strength.
That was why he had not waited an hour. He had started a new fight with Alaka immediately.
Luke watched the platform thoughtfully. Even if all of this was just a guess, he felt he was probably very close to the truth.
By the time the duel was halfway through, Alaka was already feeling enormous pressure.
He realized then that the elders had all underestimated this man.
His strength was tremendous.
Fiora rose to her feet. She had no intention of watching any longer and was already preparing to leave.
In her heart, she knew there was no point in staying for the rest of the duel.
Seeing her stand, Luke and the others got up as well and followed her out early.
Not long after they left, Alaka's rapier fell weakly from his hand onto the platform.
By the afternoon, the battles at the Skaggorn embassy had already become one of the hottest topics in the capital, even without the newspapers pushing it.
Farmel and Alaka were brothers. While neither of them was as well known in High Silvermere as Ammdar, both still had a fair amount of reputation.
But today, the two brothers had challenged Hughes one after the other, and both had lost.
That not only proved once again that Hughes possessed formidable skill, it also seemed to tell the whole city that House Laurent was no longer what it had once been.
Every young member of House Laurent with any real strength had lost to Hughes over the course of just two days.
After all that, House Laurent had completely become Hughes's backdrop.
And after defeating Alaka, Hughes declared that he would shatter the last of House Laurent's dignity.
At this point, only one person remained, the true centerpiece of the challenge, Ammdar.
During these two days, while Ammdar had been in seclusion, he learned about everything that had happened and could not make sense of it at all.
"Great-Uncle, why did you challenge him without even telling me first?"
Inside House Laurent, Ammdar stared directly at the elders before him, frustration and helpless anger in his eyes.
At that moment, the three elders and all the surrounding aunts and uncles looked equally unpleasant.
Under his gaze, the senior elder finally spoke. "Because you no longer represent only yourself. You are the successor we chose for the next head of the family. If anything were to go wrong in this duel, then the reputation of House Laurent as a whole would be damaged."
The challenge had been issued on National Day, under the eyes of the entire capital.
If their next successor was defeated by a foreign envoy, the effect on House Laurent would be enormous.
Ammdar asked, "And how is the situation any better now?"
That question silenced the entire room.
Two days.
Five straight losses.
Every notable young member of House Laurent had basically been crushed by Hughes.
For two full days, the city had been full of discussion about House Laurent, while Hughes, it could be said, had used the family to launch himself into fame.
In the end, House Laurent's reputation had still suffered badly.
And on top of that, this unnecessary operation had not only failed to stop tomorrow's duel, it had also made even more people aware of it.
At the same time, it had piled even more pressure onto Ammdar.
"No matter what, get some proper rest today and prepare for tomorrow's duel."
With things having come this far, Sébastien stepped forward and looked at Ammdar, speaking in a gentle voice. "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. House Laurent's reputation will not vanish because of a single duel."
That was what he said.
But everyone knew that by now, the weight of tomorrow's duel was completely different.
If Ammdar won, that was one thing.
But if he lost, House Laurent might never be able to lift its head again.
Looking at his father, Ammdar let out a long breath and said, "Yes, Father. I'm going to the back courtyard to keep training."
As they watched him walk away, Sébastien sighed inwardly and quietly listened to the discussion of the relatives around him.
But his gaze fell to his own leg.
He was not a qualified father.
If he had not been so careless back then, his wife, his son, and his daughter would not be carrying so much pressure now.
The sky had gone dark, and it was nearly eleven at night.
At Luke's estate, Fiora stood by the gate and said goodbye. "See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow."
Luke nodded, then casually asked, "By the way, has your uncle been taking the medicine I prepared for him?"
Fiora nodded. "He's been taking it every day."
"That's good."
Luke smiled and watched her turn and walk away.
Ever since the Laurents had visited the estate last time, he had noticed Sébastien's leg injury. So after that, he had put together some medicine for him.
Judging by the time that had passed, it should be starting to show some effect by now.
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